Google Building Opt-Out for WiFi Location Services

By Clint Boulton |
Posted 2011-09-13

Bowing to pressure from Europe's data protection authorities, Google
(NASDAQ:GOOG) is building a service that lets wireless Internet access point
owners opt out of the search engine provider's location services.

For example, the Google Maps for Mobile application
helps people find themselves and nearby places and attractions on a map. And
Google Places suggests businesses located near users based on the signals their
smartphones produce. Users may then "check-in" to the location or
even rate it.

Users may always choose "turn off" location services on their
smartphones. However, the European Commission in May decreed that the
unauthorized use of data from WiFi-enabled devices violated European law that
prohibits the commercial use of private data without an owner's consent.

Google is allowing users to opt out of Google's location services, which
would no longer rely on those users' WiFi routers to pinpoint their approximate
locations.

This happened in nearly 40 countries, where Street View cars grabbed
location and other data to help provide street-level views of surroundings.

Google disclosed the 600 gigabytes of data pilfering, apologized, and
ultimately pledged to stop collecting data via WiFi routers, but the damage to
its trust was done.

Connecticut state Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal vilified the company for gross data collection. CORRECTION: New AG George Jepsen reached an agreement with Google about the nature of the payload data the company collected from unsecured wireless networks in Connecticut. The disposition of that data has not been resolved.

European data protection officials, particularly in Germany
and France,
were incensed and have sought to crack down on Google's data collection
efforts.